Georgia GOP trying to legalize bigotry, again

A Facebook message: “Alex, I think you’re a really great person doing wonderful things for the world but you need to stop promoting homosexuality on your Facebook page or people will get ideas about you. I’m sure you’re a good Christian woman so your writing should reflect those values.”

Gadzooks! “…get ideas”? What – that I’m (gasp) a closeted lesbian? A lapsed Christian? Or that I have actually studied the Bible and believe, above all, in acceptance and equality. (I’m a big fan of 1 John 4:20. Look it up sometime. Actually, I think I’ll make that my Facebook cover photo for a while.) And “promoting homosexuality”? Is that what you think it is when someone speaks out about against bigotry? Interesting.

Meanwhile, I received a morning e-blast from Georgia Senator William Ligon:

“Thus, the Senate Rules Committee added a second section to the bill, known as the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA). This additional language protects individuals and legal entities from facing any civil penalties for acting upon their sincerely-held religious beliefs concerning lawful marriage. This law would help prevent frivolous lawsuits by those trying to coerce people into uniformity of belief, speech, and action concerning marriage. The bill is now ready for consideration in the House of Representatives where you can continue to let your views be known about the legislation.

For those who need to understand more of what is at stake in these efforts to protect religious liberty, Erick Erickson has just written a new book, You Will Be Made to Care. It can be pre-ordered right now on Amazon.”

So I popped over to Google to check out this highly-touted tome.

According to its website, the book will teach readers, and I quote:

How lawyers are raking in millions through politically correct lawsuits against religious groups that don’t affirm homosexuality as “normal”

How there is nowhere to hide: no matter how small your bed and breakfast, or your wedding chapel, or your flower shop–the leftist-homosexual mafia will shut you down if you don’t share their beliefs

How Christian clergy will be forced to perform gay weddings or see their churches forced into bankruptcy

The book is a litany of the “right’s” greatest horror-stories in the so-called “war” on Christians led by the “leftist-homosexual mafia.” Erickson writes “The secular left in America has its own religion — the state. Worship of the state and the self cannot tolerate dissent or competition, and therefore is moving aggressively to shut down, silence, and drive from the town square any competing ideas. Evil has been preaching tolerance, but now that it is dominate (sic), it seeks to silence good.”

Dear Lord, save me from these misguided moral-warriors who masquerade their bigotry with a cloak of pious “Christianity.”

What terrifies them so (for all hatred is born of fear)? The much-ballyhooed “breakdown of the traditional American family unit”? News flash, buckos – that done broke down some time ago. That the “sanctity of marriage” will be compromised? Too late to close the barn door, Bessie – 40%–50% of marriages end in divorce. That the whole purpose of marriage is procreation? Kinda sucks for those who cannot bear children or those who marry later in life, huh? And about those 450,000 children currently languishing in foster care in America – but I guess that’s a whole ‘nother conversation. I’ll get back to you on that.

Face it, oh ye ever-so-sanctimonious, uber-“Christians”: your narrow-minded prejudice is not based in either scripture or reality. It is built upon a shaky foundation of ignorance and fear. (Oh, and before you post, email or Twitter again on your fancy-dancy iPhone…the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, is gay. BOO! Scared now, ain’t ya?) And before you go all “Yes, but it’s not the American way” on me, chew on this for a while: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ALL men are created equal.” Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863 Gettysburg Address

So, in short, dear Facebook message-sender (and Senator Ligon), I am sick unto death of the antediluvian idiocy of so-called “religious freedom laws” (while being forced to pay taxes into a state system that is attempting to violate my own religious beliefs), the bastardization of scripture, and holier-than-thou bigots who hide their trembling uncertainty behind placards, Bibles, and warped pulpit-thumping politicians who want only to trade upon the sad ignorance of those who need to elevate themselves by stepping on the faces of their brothers and sisters.

You want to enact laws that will allow others to refuse service to LGBT people? Allrighty then. Stand in front of me and explain how this is different from denying service to a single parent, a black couple, a Muslim couple, a Jewish couple, a mixed-race couple. Look at your own sons and daughters and tell me which ones are not worthy of equality. Go ahead. I dare you.

Image: GOP Elephant Using Georgia Capital Gold Dome as a Toliet is composite photo created for LikeTheDew.com from a photo of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta by J. Glover (AUtiger) via wikipedia.org and a photo borrowed from Pinterest.com that could have come from anywhere.

Alex writes for a variety of national and international publications. A relative newcomer to the United States, she co-founded her town's first environmental organization (The St. Marys EarthKeepers, Inc.). In turns bemused, confused, entranced, frustrated and delighted, she enjoys unravelling the eternal enigma that is the Deep South.